Marian Harkin
Question:39. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for Education what funding was allocated for school libraries in budget 2023 and budget 2024, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48908/23]
View answerWednesday, 8 November 2023
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Written answers
My Department continues to deliver on the priorities outlined in the Programme for Government to support students, staff, and families in the education sector.
Library space is provided as standard as part of all new primary and post primary school buildings and as part of some school extension projects. The standard provision at primary school is a combined Library and Resource space of 66m2. For schools of 32 classrooms and more, two such spaces are provided. At post primary level a single library space is provided, but the size is determined in proportion to the planned number of pupils at the school. A 1000 pupil school, for example, is provided with a Library sized at 178.9m2.
In addition, under the Junior Certificate School Programme (JCSP), the JCSP Demonstration Library Project was set up which has established school libraries in 30 schools with professional librarians based in these schools. Librarians are responsible, together with key school staff, for drawing up and implementing library strategies to tackle the literacy difficulties experienced by many JCSP students. Each year, every library receives a grant from JCSP of €15,675 which funds literacy and numeracy initiatives, book buying and resources for the library. The budget for 2023 for these 30 schools is €531,232.64. Separately €2.2m has been budgeted in 2023 towards funding the JCSP librarian salaries who work in these 30 schools. Budgeting for the JCSP libraries for 2024 is being considered.
In March 2023 my Department made an investment of over €50 million to provide free schoolbooks in primary schools and special schools. In budget 2024 I am pleased to extend the free schoolbook scheme to more than 500,000 children at Junior Cycle at a cost of €47 million. Any surplus grant, after textbooks and other materials have been provided, can be used to purchase shared books, audio books and other material to increase the literacy (in English, Irish or other languages) and numeracy resources in a school.